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had come true (the Revolution and sore distress thereby), and that he prayed to God that the other might come to pass. Upon this Gilbert caused it to be signified to him, that the second part of what he had said was also in a great measure come to pass, for that the Lord had given him his life" (alluding to the battle of the Boyne). I mention this as a curious anecdote of the constitution of the King's mind, he having viewed the words spoken by Gilbert Latey in a prophetic light.

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In the month of April the King renewedhis Declaration for liberty of conscience, with this addition, that he would adhere firmly to it, and that he would put none into public employments but such as would concur with him in maintaining it. He also promised that he would hold a Parliament in the November following. This was what William Penn desired. He wished the King to continue firm to his purpose; but he knew that neither tests nor penalties could be legally removed without the consent of Parliament. He rejoiced therefore that the Parliament were to be consulted on the measure; for he indulged a hope, that

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the substance of the Royal Declaration would be confirmed by both Houses, and thus pass into a law of the land.

At the time when this Declaration was renewed, an Order of Council came out, that it should be read in the churches within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the kingdom. Sancroft Archbishop of Canterbury, and six other Bishops, namely, St. Asaph, Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Chichester, and Bristol, presented a petition to the King in behalf of themselves and several other Bishops, and a great body of the Clergy; in which they laid before him the reasons why they had opposed the reading of the Declaration in the churches, as the Order in Council had prescribed. They intended, they said, no disrespect to His Majesty, nor did they breathe any spirit of hostility towards the Dissenters; but the Declaration being founded on a dispensing power, which had been declared illegal no less than three times in eight years, they could not become parties to it by giving it the extraordinary publicity required. The King having heard the petition, of which this was the substance, took time to deliberate upon it; after

which the seven Bishops were sent to the Tower. In process of time they were brought to trial, and they were acquitted among the plaudits of the nation.

After this event William Penn became more unpopular than ever. It had transpired, probably by means of Burnet, that he had been employed by the King on the embassy to the Hague to obtain the Prince of Orange's consent, not only to a Toleration, but to the removal of Tests. It had been suspected that he was the mover of the Royal Proclamation in 1686, and of the Declaration in 1687. It had become known, though he had concealed his name, that he was the author of "Good Advice to the Church of England, and Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters." It was therefore now taken for granted, that he had a hand in the imprisonment of the Bishops, though he had never any concern, on any occasion, in the recommendation of force. The consequence was, that he became very odious to the Church. The Dissenters too, whose very cause he had been pleading, turned against him. Considering his intimacy with James the Second, they judged him to be a

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creature of the same stamp, and to have the like projects and pursuits. Now it happened that the King had made this year a more open acknowledgement of Popery than ever. He had permitted the Jesuits to erect a College in the Savoy in London, and suffered the Friars to go publicly in the dress of their monastical orders; which was a strange sight to Protestants. He had permitted also the Pope's Nuncio D'Ada to make his public entry into Windsor in great state. therefore most openly a Catholic.

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they considered William Penn to be of the same religious persuasion. But they carried the matter still further; for, believing that the King, when he wished to establish a Toleration and to abolish Tests, had no other motive than that of protecting the Roman Catholic religion, and thus giving it an opportunity to flourish, they attached to William Penn the same motive in his furtherance and defence of the measure. From this time the names of Papist and Jesuit were revived with double fury. It was added, that he was disaffected to the free part of the Constitution, and a friend to arbitrary power. The clamour, indeed,

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was so great against him, being spread both by Dissenters and the Church, that several, who had not the courage to go against the spirit of the times, avoided his acquaintance. Others, who were of a firmer texture, and who valued him from what they knew of his worth and character, did not follow the stream; but, either to exculpate themselves for not doing so, or to try if possible to recover his expiring reputation, required of him, as Dr. Tillotson had done before, a voucher from his own hand, that there was no ground for those epithets which the public had fixed upon him. Among these was Mr. Popple*, who was the intimate friend both of him and of John Locke. His letter to this purpose was friendly, modest, and respectful, yet firm and manly. It discovered great good sense, and a liberal and highly cultivated mind. As a composition it was masterly, with respect to words, sentences, and arguments, as will be seen from the following copy of its contents.

*This gentleman was Secretary to the Lords Commissioners for the Affairs of Trade and Plantations.

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